WEEK 2 MINGLE - ARTEMISIA

[foundationmods]

Things had changed so rapidly in the past few days.

The loss of two of them hung over like a shroud, made even worse by the fact that an innocent person had been executed.

Was this....how the rest of the game was going to go...?🗈

....Even if it was, there wasn't much they could do now. Yuuko herself hasn't shown up in public since the trial, and while some have talked to her, she's been...subdued.

Did the trial hurt her just as much as them?

Regardless, the island is still beautiful, if deadly. Summer continues, beaming down on all of them, the waves of the sea warm and inviting.

But even if things look bleak...

They have something in their hands that will soon lead to the Truth, and the heart of this matter.

And in the air...lies a heavy sense that everything is about to change.

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Comments

[anonnomnomnom]

[His grin just widens a little at Natsuno's flailing because honestly, it's not like Anon's thinking either, he's just going with the flow here?? He laughs a little at the jab back and looks down at himself -- he's wearing a pretty hideously bright tank top with something like a star logo on it. There's a bunch of exclamation points.

His frame is most definitely bigger than Natsuno's, so maybe it can count as a coat under the right circumstances???]

I mean, if you like it, you can have it! I have bunch of these for some reason.

[Natsuno really should have thought this through.]

[sotoshini]

I've worn brighter things. [ ...he really should have thought this through. Too late now. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

Then it’s a trade.

[Definitely too late now because — is Anon stripping in the middle of the ballroom now amidst the riddles and the entire company, sure. Why not. It’s not like the goat butlers will mind.

Random people might mind if he goes around as a topless zebra though so. He waves the tank top at Natsuno once he’s all done.]

[sotoshini]

[ ....... ]

[ Natsuno's facial expressions usually range from broody, bored, sullen, amused or somewhere in between. But this whole exchange seems to have broken him, given the hot mess of flustered, confused, and panicked that flushes across his features. Accepting the tank top with a slight bow (sometimes you just resort to what's been hammered into you for years in the absence of logic), he blinks a few times and tries to make his brain function. ]

Y-yeah, sure. [ .... right he should be taking his jacket off? Yeah that makes sense. It's pretty big for extra comfort, and as he tries to focus on that he just starts speaking again. ]

Stripes?

[anonnomnomnom]

Stripes.

[Anon confirms that, and for a moment -- in between his self-satisfied contemplation of Natsuno's flailing: the sequel and his even more self-satisfied examination of the jacket he's just snagged for himself, and the moment when he looks like he wants to laugh where Natsuno's got the whole bowing thing going on -- for a moment it looks like he isn't going to bother to explain and is just going to be smug over his new outfit for a while.

Then he goes ahead and pulls it on, just. Without a shirt or anything, because he's a heathen and there are no extra shirts in the ballroom. It's fine.]

They're the markings of my clan. Every clan has their own, and it's usually how we recognize each other! Well, it's pretty easy to recognize us even without them. [he ruffles the jacket a little, both for the crinkle and the fluff] This is pretty comfortable, actually.

[sotoshini]

[ There's a low mumbling that vaguely sounds like "glad you like it" before he shakes his head and directs all his energy into pulling the tank top over his head. Good thing it's pretty loose on him because it's essentially acting as the funkiest suit vest in existence to a plain black t-shirt.

By the time all that's done, he mostly seems to have regained his composure. ]

Does that mean there's infernals out there with hearts on them?

[anonnomnomnom]

[Anon has definitely not stopped looking amused with the whole affair, especially with all the mumbling going on while Natsuno puts himself and his outfit back together; and he dissolves into more laughter with that inquiry, because where did that come from? Also considering how much he moves around, they're just going to be surrounded by crinkles for the rest of time at this rate.]

No way, though that'd be pretty amazing. I can't imagine any Infernal clan that would really be fine with having heart markings.

[They're not magical girls, Natsuno???]

I think there are some that look like stars, and others that look like rings, and all kinds of other things.

[sotoshini]

[ His recovery was short lived. Just shoving his hands into his pockets before he breaks out into a short chuckle himself at the crinkling. Why is he even trying to-actually he has no idea what he's even trying to do at this point. ]


Hm. Stripes are classic at least.

[anonnomnomnom]

[He, for one, is having way too much fun with this jacket.]

Are they a classic? All I know is that they're part of some big animal on Earth. A big cat!

[He's totally calling himself a tiger because it's cooler and bigger.]

Oh, and nobody's got us beat on number of stripes.

[sotoshini]

[ Letting his gaze flick back over to the still very visible stripes on Anon's chest. At this point all he can is embrace this crazy interaction, even if the way he shifts his weight from side to side belies that he's pretty flustered. ]

A tiger. Tigerstripe is a classic too, yeah. [ Headtilt. ]

That doesn't surprise me. Are you born with them or do you earn them?

[anonnomnomnom]

[Anon still seems perfectly at ease baring all his stripes to the ballroom and the world, though there's that additional amused quirk to his grin that hasn't quite left because Natsuno hasn't stopped fidgeting. Way to get flustered over a little thing like clothes, gosh.]

Right, a tiger was the name! I really didn't know humans liked that pattern so much. But--

[He gives his own chest a vague tap, and then his cheek, which is about the only place you can see his stripes when he's fully dressed, usually.]

I've had these since I was born. Though earning more would be pretty interesting, too.

[He really doesn't need any more.....]

[sotoshini]

[ Normally he doesn't mind! But this whole swapping right here and now thing completely threw him rip. ]

Jinrou and Shiki too. That guy I killed, the head jinrou? He pretty much always wore stripes or spots and things like that. [ And then he shows up in an outfit Tatsumi would be proud of for week three trial, it's fine. ]

You could get tattoos but...natural is probably better. Even if you wouldn't be allowed in most onsen like that.

[anonnomnomnom]

[Gotta strike while the iron is hot, and unfortunately for him Anon is just capricious enough to do that. It's something that got him in trouble with the Foundation and probably all other forces, but he can't help being an agent of chaos.]

Hahaha, I don't know if I want to share stripes with a guy like that.

[It's all good, there's always time for a tiger to change its stripes. Though in his case, it's a little bit harder right now.]

We have plenty of onsen in the Underworld. [geological activity and all] Besides, I can become stripeless whenever I want as long as I'm not a Witch's Piece.

[sotoshini]

Me either. [ smh. ]

Right you can turn into a lot of things, mn?

[anonnomnomnom]

I can turn into anything just as long as I can catch it!

[There's something both proud and sly in his tone. There's a reason he's not outright giving examples, but there are quite a few that Natsuno could probably guess.]

[sotoshini]

[ Thinking, he tilts his head. He can guess but- ]

So if you caught a cheetah you could have spots and stripes.

[anonnomnomnom]

[He snickers because the mental image is kind of great, actually? But also--]

Of course I can catch a cheetah. There's no animal on Earth faster than an Infernal!

[Normally, he's modest about skills, but this is just basic physical attributes, so there. He thinks for a moment longer.]

Hmm, but then I'd look like that weird code that they used for tapping out messages in the old days on Earth. Maybe I'd be covered in secret messages?

[He just becomes walking Morse code somehow.]

[sotoshini]

Morse code. If you walked around like that, people would think you were heralding the end of days or something.

[ Cause infernal. This is probably something he shouldn't find so amusing, but eh this is how Natsuno is. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

[Of course, he just grins the most shit-eating grin at that. He can't help it.]

Hahahaha, that sounds like fun, though -- maybe I really will look for a cheetah the next chance I get.

Maybe I can even ask the goats for a cheetah.

[Don't bring a cheetah to murder island oh my god.]

[sotoshini]

[ That grin is kinda contagious. Not enough to return one, but enough for Natsuno to stifle a laugh. This is terrible, someone help them. ]

If you do that, I wanna see. There's no obaasan to scare here but I can wait.

[anonnomnomnom]

[There's no help for people like this. Anon just looks increasingly pleased with his harebrained ideas, so really you shouldn't be encouraging him. RIP.]

Heheh. If that does happen, I think it'd turn into an interesting battle, because I don't know if the goats or the cheetah would win. (I would probably win, but.)

Besides, I think there's a whole bunch of interesting people here, so if I give them the cheetah test...

[Someone please stop him.]

[sotoshini]

[ There's no going back now. ]

The cheetah. [ His bias here is speaking because meh goats! ]

Does Wheatley really need another reason to scream? [ The answer here is yes, and his tone betrays this. Now he really wants to see this... ]

[anonnomnomnom]

[There's a snicker here, because yeah, he probably expected that answer. He also approves of that answer?? Regardless of the ensuing lack of goats and thus sustenance and laundry and whatnot.]

I think Wheatley pretty much screams for no reason anyway. So we might as well give him a reason.

Besides, I'm pretty sure Gebura would try to punch the cheetah, and there are people who would try to feed it, and other people who would try to ride it, and I would probably try punching it too, but only after all of that other stuff.

[Or in tandem with Gebura. The crinkly jacket is like providing a background soundtrack to this ongoing disaster and RIP why is he like this, we can't retcon a cheetah from Week 2!!!!]

[sotoshini]

[ Natsuno manages to not slip into a grin until the very end. Somehow the thought of Anon punching a cheetah after putting it through all that is just too much. His laugh is short but genuine and given everything this conversation is he kinda feels like the cheetah probably would. ]

You'd give the cheetah whiplash. [ Settling back into his usual stony expression, there's a lingering hint of amusement in his tone. ]

Glad you're enjoying the jacket. Now I'll be able to hear you even if I fall asleep in one of those trees again. And everyone can hear you here if they go blind from the puzzle, I guess.

[ Because there are still puzzles going on in the background and goats flirting but they've been too caught up in each other to pay much attention to everyone else. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

[Anon's grin back is really very cheeky by now, considering all the myriad things he's done to Natsuno's composure in this thread! Perhaps he's starting to get a little too good at this already, or maybe it's just that there's just no way for either of them to get out of this thread with any dignity.]

The cheetah should definitely be used to something like that.

[Whiplash, he probably means, not all of the terrible things that would happen to it at the hands of their cohort. He looks down and prods at the jacket a little again.]

Even if you fall asleep in another tree, I'm not going to wake you up! I think we did pretty okay with the puzzles, though, too bad.

[At this rate the puzzles are probably almost over?? There have been people wandering around mute and deaf and stuff and it's a mess but they're on their own at this point.]